The names Varni (Procopius), Varini (Tacitus), Varinnae (Pliny the Elder), Wærne/Werne (Widsith) and Warnii (Lex Thuringorum) probably refer to a little-known Germanic tribe. The name would have meant the "defenders". They lived in northern Germany. They are often called Warni and Warini in English. The earliest mention of this tribe appears in Tacitus' Germania, where he wrote:

(English translation) "There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of Herthum (Nerthus); that is to say, the Mother Earth."--Tacitus, Germania, 40, translated 1877 by Church and Brodribb.[2]

Pliny the Elder wrote Germanorvm genera qvinqve: Vandili, qvorvm pars Bvrgodiones, Varinnae, Charini, Gvtones meaning that there were five Germanic races: the Vandals whom the Burgundians were part of, the Varinnae, the Charini and the Gutones (Goths).

It is likewise mentioned in passing by Procopius who wrote that when the Heruls (Eruli) had been defeated by the Lombards, they returned to Scandinavia (Thule). They crossed the Danube (Ister), passed the Slavs (Sclaveni) and after a barren region, they came to the Varni. After the Varni they passed the Dani, and crossed the sea. In Scandinavia, they settled beside the Geats (Gautoi). Procopius: Book VI, xv.

^Tacitus', Germania, 40; translation from The Agricola and Germania, Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb, trans., (London: Macmillan, 1877), pp. 87- 10, as recorded in the Medieval Sourcebook[2]